UN Special Rapporteur On Torture And Other Cruel Is Notified On Situation Of Piotr Kuchura

21.08.2019, 14:57

In 2019, the convicted person was subjected to 30 different types of punishment.

Piotr Kuchura's persecution in the penal colony 15 and negligence of the state bodies to stop them forced his wife Liudmila Kuchura to address the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment with the support of the Belarusian Documentation Center, as spring96.org reports.

The reason for this was the cruel treatment of the convicted person by the administration of the penal colony represented by the head of the institution, Aliaksei Lazarenka, who wanted to force him to stop complaining about the abuses by the administration.

At first, they imposed disciplinary sanctions on him – locked him up in a punitive isolation cell for minor offenses, prevented him from filing complaints and requests to provide him a lawyer.

In 2019, Kuchura was subjected to such punishments 30 times. He was kept in premises that lacked proper lighting, normal conditions for sleeping and rest, adequate nutrition, and access to medical care, i.e. he was actually subjected to cruel treatment.

Since this had little effect on him, on 21 March he was beaten by the head of the colony Lazarenka, who hit him five times with his fists on different parts of his body, causing bodily injuries. The convicted person was denied medical care.

On 24 July, while familiarizing himself with the materials of the case of his transfer to the prison, Piotr Kuchura found a razor hidden in the documents. After that Ivan Ihnatsenka, the acting head of the correctional facility No. 15, started to persuade him to commit suicide in a threatening manner.

In 2019, Kuchura did not have any family visits at all and was refused to have his lawyer in the civil case of his transfer to prison. The administration did not let Kuchura's letter to his relatives, as well as his complaints to various state bodies, out of the colony. Even representatives of the Public Oversight Commission were not allowed to see him.

These flagrant violations by the head of the colony No. 15 Lazarenka were not duly investigated, although Liudmila Kuchura addressed various authorities: the Department of the Investigative Committee of the Mahiliou region, the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Belarus, the Prosecutor's Office of the Mahiliou region, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Belarus, the Administration of the President of the Republic of Belarus and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus. All complaints were rejected.

As a result, she had no choice but to address international bodies with the support of human rights defenders in order to protect the right of Piotr Kuchura not to be subjected to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment provided for by Article 25 of the Constitution.